Why did it take so long? It is over four years since the financial crisis began. Yet only now are anti-capitalist protests emerging, including at St Paul's Cathedral. So is this the beginning of a resurgent leftwing politics? I doubt it. Are the protesters raising some big questions? Yes, they are.
为什么如此之久？金融危机爆发至今已有4年多的时间，但直到现在，才兴起反资本主义抗议（抗议波及到了圣保罗大教堂）。那么，这是不是左翼政治复兴的开端呢？我对此表示怀疑。抗议者是否提出了一些重大问题？是的，的确如此。
For this to be the beginning of a new leftwing politics, two things have to occur: first, a credible new ideology must emerge; second, some social force must march behind it.
这股浪潮要成为新左翼政治的开端，必须具备两个因素：第一，必须出现一种令人信服的新意识形态；第二，在这种意识形态的背后必须存在着某种社会力量。
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the ideology was socialism and the force was organised labour. Socialism failed as a way of running economies. It did, however, succeed in establishing welfare states. Socialism is a conservative force, dedicated to defending entitlements built up over a century. Meanwhile, organised labour is only strongly entrenched in the public sector. This gives it the same conservative agenda: defending the welfare state. Strikes by UK public sector workers against the fiscal cuts will demonstrate this.
19世纪到20世纪初，新涌现的意识形态是社会主义，背后的力量则是有组织的工人。社会主义作为一种经济管理方式以失败告终，但它成功地建立起了福利国家。社会主义是一股保守力量，致力于捍卫一个多世纪以来逐步争取到的权利。另一方面，工人组织仅在公共部门确立起了牢固的地位。这赋予它同样的保守使命：维护福利国家。英国公共部门工人针对财政削减计划发起的罢工，就可说明这一点。